Issues

In this issue, we delve into some of the strange intersections between humans and animals. Associate editor Tay Wiles introduces us to members of Nevada’s Agriculture Enforcement Unit, who ride the range investigating a spate of mysterious bovine injuries, and for our cover story, writer Julia Rosen takes us into the paradoxical world of bighorn sheep conservation that's pitted conservationists against each other.

In this issue, a look at Adelanto, California, and the economies it has turned to in order to survive: desert farming, then a military air base and finally an immigration incarceration center. Also, bears and tourists in national parks, some of Oregon’s houseless find a home, and oil and gas development under Colorado suburbs leads to a deadly explosion.

In this issue, our feature story explores a small corner of the region: A fundamentalist empire called Short Creek on the Arizona-Utah border that's feeling the encroaching pressure of the modern-day West. There we find uncomfortable truth — but an important aspect of the past. In the rest of the issue, we have an eye on the future: A Westerner on the Supreme Court, and solutions to endless sprawl in water-scarce Arizona.

This issue’s cover story takes us into towering plumes of smoke to follow the work of researchers. New studies are uncovering how intense wildfires create their own weather and move across the land — knowledge that could save lives. It's a reminder of stake: If President Donald Trump’s budget cuts hobble that research, it will harm, not strengthen, the West’s security. Plus, the growing voice of sportsmen, communities protecting immigrants, and a public-lands love affair.

In our latest issue, we take a look back on our political history: In 1983, Reagan’s pick to head the environmental Protection agency, Anne Gorsuch, led the charge to slash her own agency’s budget and relax pollution standards. Scott Pruitt, the Trump administration’s new EPA administrator, has staked out an eerily similar path. In our cover story, a Washington man at the center of a timber-poaching gang wanted to help investigators — but he probably didn't think it would backfire and lead to an investigation that would land him in jail.

In this year's Travel Issue, we have tried to push deep into the unexpected, or even uncomfortable, corners of the West. These are not vacation stories, necessarily. But they are travel stories. They are as much inner journeys as outer, all prompted by the unique features of our great region, places often forgotten or ignored.

In this issue, we investigate how the tentacles of a national opioid and heroin epidemic have reached the rural West. To help tell that story, Assistant Editor Paige Blankenbuehler reported in tiny Craig, Colorado, where she uncovered a private practice that spurred a complicated drug crisis that continues to outpace the available resources for addicts, the health care community and law enforcement.

As a new administration begins to overhaul U.S. regulatory system, we take a deeper look at the meaning of wilderness. Florence Williams, in our cover feature, tags along on an Idaho outing along a "River of No Return." The experience proved transformative for many of the women, damaged by the war, who found solace in nature.

How the movement at Standing Rock and its protestors' efforts extended well beyond North Dakota. While the pipeline is stalled (for now), its impacts are planting seeds, however small, within social and environmental movements and for tribal sovereignty across the country.

In our last issue of the year, we reflect on the presidency of Barack Obama and the stamp he's left on the West. Despite his inclination toward compromise and incremental progress, Obama may well be remembered as the first leader to seriously address the foremost environmental issue of our time: climate change.

In this issue, the culmination of a year-long investigation into sexual harassment and gender discrimination at federal public lands agencies by Lyndsey Gilpin, the magazine’s editorial fellow. Also, the uncertain future of Obama's legacy under Trump, a new way forward for Western farming and an end to coal terminals?

This issue examines the value of the West’s open spaces, its public lands, and its rich natural and cultural resources. In such places we find solace, as well as common values across cultural and political divides. In our cover story, Kate Schimel, the magazine’s digital editor, visits a “wilderness for weirdoes,” asking what it means to love such a place, Correspondent Sarah Tory takes us to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where a piece of Americana, 12,000 years in the making, is crumbling rapidly away and essayist Peter Friederici examines our complicity in the realities of climate change.

Our special, once-a-year, Books and Authors issue focuses on coming to terms with legacies of the past — and looking forward to where the West is headed. Featuring new writing by Terry Tempest Williams and Aaron A. Abeyta, plus interviews with Kim Stanley Robinson and Stephen Graham Jones, this edition peers deeper into questions that shape Western identity.

In the fight over a Bears Ears national monument, complicated questions arise about who has a claim on the land. Also in this issue, logging battles in Canada and Alaska and climate change's threat to a beloved berry.

As Election Day looms, High Country News takes a look at Trump's disruptive effect. From mobilizing undocumented immigrants to unsettling Mormon Country, Trump's rhetoric is permanently recoloring Western politics.

In our special issue Frontera Incognita, High Country News revisits the Borderlands. The Borderlands, as our collection of stories show, means different things to different people. We explore the many relationships people have with our country's perimeter.

Why disappearing rural hospitals spell trouble for the Central Valley. In this special feature, High Country News looks at the troubled rural Western healthcare system. Plus, when to say yes to invasive plants, Alaska’s overtaxed firefighters and New Mexico’s oldest climate correspondent.

The heat is rising on the National Park Service. In our special report: How climate change is altering the country's beloved parks and the agency's centennial has brought with it harsh scrutiny on issues of race and gender. Plus, nuclear power divides CA and a trip down the Grand.

In New Mexico, a stalemate between federal and state wildlife officials leaves the state's wolves in peril. Plus, a review of Jim Harrison's last book and a seed bank that will help researchers trace the effects of climate change.

TROUT UNLIMITED NORTH IDAHO FIELD COORDINATOR
The field coordinator will work with TU members, other fishing organizations, community leaders, businesses and elected officials to build support for actions necessary to recover...

RECRUITMENT & HIRING MANAGER WITH WRA
Western Resource Advocates (WRA) is seeking a dynamic, organized, and creative person with great people skills to be our Recruitment & Hiring Manager to recruit...

DONOR RELATIONS MANAGER
This position is responsible for the identification and qualification of major and planned gift prospects and assists in cultivating and soliciting donors through meetings, trips,...

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Do you enjoy rural living, wild places, family farms, challenging politics, and big conservation opportunities? Do you have leadership abilities, experience with rural land protection,...

MONTANA LAND STEWARD
The Montana Land Steward develops, manages, and advances conservation programs, plans, and methods related to TNC's property interest portfolio in Montana. For more information and...

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
We are hiring a Director of Development Full time, competitive pay and benefits. Location: Bozeman,MT Visit www.greateryellowstone.org/careers for details GYC is an equal opportunity employer

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KANIKSU LAND TRUST
Kaniksu Land Trust, a community-supported non-profit land trust serving north Idaho and northwest Montana, is in search of a new executive director. The ideal candidate...

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
The Arizona Wildlife Federation seeks an energetic Marketing and Communications Director. Please see the full job description at https://azwildlife.org/jobs

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER/DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Friends of Cedar Mesa seeks a skilled non-profit leader to play a crucial role in protecting the greater Bears Ears landscape. Experience working with government...